No faith lost — 5 takeaways from Eagles-Commanders a day later

A lot changes when you lose your star quarterback in the middle of a game.

For the Eagles on Sunday, it was for the worse.

While Kenny Pickett kept the Eagles in the competitive, the defense did not.

The Commanders came back from a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Eagles 36-33 in Landover, Maryland. The 10-game winning streak has come to an end, their hopes for the No. 1 seed seem to be over, and the Eagles may need to bounce back against the Cowboys on Sunday without Jalen Hurts.

Here are my five observations a day after the win:

Hurts haters can shut up

Pickett did not play poorly in this game, at all. He gave the Eagles a chance to win. If it were not for late drops by Saquon Barkley in the flat and wide-open DeVonta Smith over the middle, the Eagles would have won the game and still be riding this winning streak. 

But, this really shows how much things change when you remove Hurts from this offense, as he exited in the first quarter with a concussion.

It is not just the passing game alters; the defense is playing you differently, the running game is not the same, third downs become tougher, and it affects the defense because the whole balance of the game is off.

Everything changes when your best player walks off the field and leaves the game. 

So for those who doubt Hurts, here you go. System quarterback this, covered by Barkley that, look at the difference in this game after the first five minutes. The Eagles are 1-4 since 2021 when Hurts is not the starting quarterback. That one win came against the New York Jets in 2021.

Very undisciplined

The Eagles made a lot of avoidable penalties Sunday afternoon that could have, and should have, been avoided.

10 total penalties for 91 yards, highlighted by C.J. Gardner-Johnson receiving two unnecessary roughness, earning him an ejection, a personal foul on Jalen Carter, and 12 men on the field for the Comamnders’ game-winning touchdown.

The Eagles have played smart and disciplined football all season. But the Commanders are chippy, and the Eagles tried to respond with more chippiness, and it bit them back in the butt.

You cannot let another team lure you into playing like that. Cannot happen this time of year.

Defense of old

For the first time since the bye week, the defense was bad. Real bad.

36 points, 368 yards, five TD passes, and 22 points in the fourth quarter. No team had scored more than 23 against the Eagles’ defense during their 10-game winning streak.

They crashed and burned in the fourth quarter, allowing touchdown drives of 61, 87, and 57 yards.

Jayden Daniels kept the Eagles’ defense off balance in the fourth quarter both throwing it and running it, and the Eagles looked gassed trying to slow him down. In the fourth quarter, Daniels threw for 139 yards with three touchdowns. He threw five touchdowns in total and ran for 82 yards against the top-rated pass defense in the NFL.

I must say, Daniels is the real deal. He has superstar potential, and it was on full display Sunday. He has a chance to pull this Washington franchise out of the laughing stock position they have been in for decades.

The Eagles certainly missed Josh Sweat, who left with an ankle injury in the second quarter, and Gardner-Johnson after his ejection.

And get this, the Eagles forced five turnovers. But by the fourth quarter, they had no answers. They could not get that final stop.

While it is hard to put this on a Hurts-less offense, there need to be some questions surrounding this defense.

It will be interesting how they respond. This is a young defense that has never self-imploded like this yet.

Barkley’s disappearance

Barkley had an amazing first quarter. Seven carries, 109 yards, and two touchdowns, including one for 68 yards.

But after that, he was held mightily in check. he finished the day with 159 rushing yards on 29 carries, good for his fourth 150+ yard performance of the season.

Obviously, Hurts coming out of the game made it much easier for the Commanders to put everything on Barkley.

Barkley now has 1,847 rushing yards this season. He will probably become the ninth running back in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards but fall short of Eric Dickerson‘s single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards.

Is it over?

No.

There were a few instances in this game that raised some red flags, but this loss may not even end up mattering in the long run The Eagles probably were never getting the one-seed anyway, and will most likely still be the two-seed even with the loss.

This team has shown so much resilience all season, I would be very surprised if they do not bounce back in a big way against stinking Dallas at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday to win the NFC East.

Remember, the Eagles did not have Hurts for pretty much the whole game and lost pieces on defense. This team has a great ability to get around adversity. This loss will not have any sort of impact in the locker room. 

All it takes is maybe two non-drops, and they probably win this game with Kenny Pickett.

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